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Alan Parsons - A Valid Path CD (album) cover

A VALID PATH

Alan Parsons

 

Prog Related

2.60 | 99 ratings

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Joolz
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
2 stars Digital sampling, sequencing, fancy computer trickery and David Gilmour's trademark guitar merge on Return To Tanguska, the first track on A Valid Path which sets the scene for this solo album from Alan Parsons. Its basis is in techno, a synthetic form of music awash with sterile beats and clever sounds all achieved through mastery of software rather than traditional instruments. Other than vocals on several tracks, guitars are just about the only 'analogue' sound to be heard and even some of the 'vocals' are played as samples. On the plus side Parsons and his assorted partners have created a fairly organic sound on tracks which could have turned into industrial hell, like L'Arc En Ciel with its nice fat bassline.

Sadly, this treatment masks the fact there are actually a couple of decent songs here: More Lost Without You is a good song with a nice melody while Parsons plays guitar and sings to good effect on We Play The Game. Other than that, the album is littered with good ideas somewhat ruined by the techno production, like the final track Chomolungma which has a hypnotic rhythm and deep chanting voices. This was not at all what I expected from Parsons. He has always made use of these techniques as part of a wider sound palette but it will take a broadminded view to find any Progressive Rock lurking in these nine tracks, let alone consider it to be a Prog masterpiece.

Joolz | 2/5 |

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